Was turkey served at the First Thanksgiving?

 

Was turkey served at the First Thanksgiving?

It is often assumed that Thanksgiving turkey dinners originated from the First Thanksgiving, a meal between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag people.

However, there isn’t a specific mention that turkey was served on the dinner table, but a pilgrim named William Bradford mentioned hunting a turkey before the meal.

Turkey has been a popular meal to serve on such occasions because it is a common bird, and one could usually feed an entire family.

Since chickens can be used for their eggs, whereas turkeys are typically raised or hunted, especially as meat birds, they were preferred for bigger feasts.

With these facts, people have assumed turkey was served on the table on the first Thanksgiving

few years ago, I made my inner history nerd unbelievably giddy and spent a few weeks digging in to one question: What was actually eaten at the first Thanksgiving? The results were surprising (no turkey?!), illuminating, and just plain curious. So leading up to November, I thought I'd give you something to chew on besides what's on your table. First, let's set the scene:

The modern Thanksgiving holiday is based off a festival shared by the pilgrims and the Wampanoag Native American tribe at Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, in 1621. The feast purportedly celebrated the colonists’ first successful harvest in the New World. While modern Thanksgiving always lands on the fourth Thursday in November, the original went down sometime earlier in autumn, closer to harvest time.